That's an interesting hypothesis. Can you give some examples, that an individual in poverty, could use to get rich quick-- but only if they lacked empathy?

I'm assuming these are things that would not land them in jail (because otherwise you'd need to argue that they won't get caught, which I think is a harder argument.)

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm curious if there is opportunity to become rich quickly, without ending up in jail, that I can't think of simply because I have empathy.

Examples of how a psychopath can profit where an empath would languor, with neither side doing anything illegal:

- Alter a contract to improve your situation at the expense of the other party

- Always take advantage of discount offers that are clearly loss-leaders, such as gift cards on sale at a grocery store, without buying anything else but the cards

- Eat at the soup kitchen instead of buying your own food

- Tip low

- Exclusively buy property at foreclosure sales

- Either claim credit or ensure that people are more willing to assign credit, especially when promotions are on the line

- Look for connected people to make friends with, even though they are slimy weasels and you don't like them

In my own life I have encountered two instances where I could have quite easily become rich by putting ethics to one side. One would have involved taking advantage of a single person. One was working for people who had a business model of taking advantage of a class of people.

I have not regretted turning down those chances in the slightest.

The best part about one of them was returning stuff the day after I quit gave me a real life experience of turning up at an office to find the entire area empty. Just like in the movies.

There are all sorts of lucrative pursuits that may not land you in jail, but that most of us would consider unethical. As one example, spamming. Another one, black hat SEO. If you're careful doing these things, you can avoid breaking the law in many countries. Often, even in those countries where these pursuits are against the law, you'd never be prosecuted.

So faced with these opportunities, there are many "psychopaths", "sociopaths", or -- to avoid pseudo-psychological terms -- unethical/immoral people who would not feel the hesitation you and I would feel faced with such possibilities.

There are all sorts of borderline/"grey" opportunities like this available to immoral people. They are unlikely to land them in jail, but they don't hesitate so they make bank.

It's mostly a hypothesis, I'm quite sure I don't suffer from pathological lack of empathy, which would mean I'm unable to truly think like a psycopath.

However, there are several things you could do that are legal that average people would consider wrong (e.g. nasty contract tricks that take advantage of the other party not understanding the contract), or that are not legal but probably can't be associated to you specifically (which is how criminal organizations work, it's very difficult to prove that anything is illegal at the top of the pyramid).

Not sure if any of that stuff is useful if your current state is personal poverty, as you still need the opportunity to take advantage of. Poverty IMO is not only lacking the money, but also lacking the opportunity.

I'll take a stab at this.

A person living in poverty and lack empathy may turn to a life of crime to get rich quickly. Selling drugs, burglary, or prostitution are all path to riches, however illegal or unethical it may be.

Those that go through prostitution may further advance their career by collect their clients information and sell it for money.

So yes, lacking empathy can definitely unlock more paths.

Whether you end up in jail depends on something else entirely. Let's say that our individual in question needs to lack empathy and be more able than an average cop in that location.

Starting an online gambling website, for one.

What do online gambling websites have to do with empathy, or lack of it?

I mean, I guess in some jurisdictions it is illegal, so it would be a risky move, but what does that have to do with empathy? Lack of empathy for your future, potentially jailed, self I guess?

I don't think that would be much easier than most startups. The same mechanics still apply. In fact, it's potentially harder due to being heavily regulated or illegal in lots of places. It also has lots of fraud risk.